154 



for the safely of Fortified Island. I flatter myself it is needless to 

 add anything further to evince the necessity of some step being 

 immediately taken to relieve this fort; nor will 1 relinquish the 

 hope that I shall not be left to a capitulation, even though accom- 

 panied by the best terms, and originating in the most absolute 

 necessity. Should this be received, please to fire two guns and 

 lower the ensign. In any future notes, my private communica- 

 tions will be by interlineations with lime juice, which a clear fire 

 will bring to light." 



Several officers, with every one of the non-commissioned offi- 

 cers, and European privates, were now, more or Jess, afflicted by 

 the scurvy; on its appearance, the surgeons pronounced vege- 

 tables and exercise to be the only things from which either pre- 

 vention or cure could be expected : people were accordingly em- 

 ployed secretly to purchase a quantity of garden-seeds in the 

 enemy's camp; which were portioned to the Europeans and 

 sepoys, with an earnest exhortation to cultivate them for the pre- 

 servation of life. This being actively pursued for some lime, the 

 fort and outworks exhibited a scene of verdure, but from lono- 

 confinement, and the indolence inseparable from scorbutic dis- 

 orders, their minds lost the necessary energy, and sunk into a slate 

 of torpor inimical to exertion. In a few weeks both Europeans 

 and sepoys gave up gardening, and the disease gaining strength, 

 became dreadfully fatal. The gentlemen in the fort left nothing 

 undone which even parental solicitude could have devised. They 

 laboured with their own hands lo supply the feeble Europeans 

 with vegetables; and by example endeavoured lo excite emula- 



